I believe intensely in the separation of Church and State, and also believe that so long as we continue to fail at that (and we are failing), there can be no true, mutual religious/spiritual tolerance.
Yes, and being angry about that is I think completely understandable. It makes me pretty angry sometimes, though I'm as likely to get angry on behalf of religious non-christians as atheists. (Well, apart from the genuinely "Pro all religions but anti-atheism" crap which assumes everyone has a "higher power" e.g. in * Anonymous or "The Artists way". Though I guess that probably excludes some religions too like animism. Maybe?)
It's the assumption (which you're not making, but I have seen other people make) that every religious person (or every christian, etc) is in favour of theocratic hegemony and thus as an individual worthy of anger which is the problem. I guess the reason I get so annoyed by it is that I got HEAPS of crap from my atheist friends when I was a left-wing, pro-science, pro-separation-of-church-and-state christian, and this actually made me stay christian longer since it seemed the more open minded option. Unfortunately I can't think of a way to say "Don't be an intolerant atheist" etc which keeps the genuinely mean spirited atheists in line without making the decent-but-justifiably-angry atheists feel like they're being told to shut up.
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Yes, and being angry about that is I think completely understandable. It makes me pretty angry sometimes, though I'm as likely to get angry on behalf of religious non-christians as atheists. (Well, apart from the genuinely "Pro all religions but anti-atheism" crap which assumes everyone has a "higher power" e.g. in * Anonymous or "The Artists way". Though I guess that probably excludes some religions too like animism. Maybe?)
It's the assumption (which you're not making, but I have seen other people make) that every religious person (or every christian, etc) is in favour of theocratic hegemony and thus as an individual worthy of anger which is the problem. I guess the reason I get so annoyed by it is that I got HEAPS of crap from my atheist friends when I was a left-wing, pro-science, pro-separation-of-church-and-state christian, and this actually made me stay christian longer since it seemed the more open minded option. Unfortunately I can't think of a way to say "Don't be an intolerant atheist" etc which keeps the genuinely mean spirited atheists in line without making the decent-but-justifiably-angry atheists feel like they're being told to shut up.